“There’s no reason,” remarked the Dean reflectively, “why the child should not have a pleasant visit, since she is here. I have had a long conversation with her, and while I could not say that she was exceptionally—er—”
“Bright,” suggested Della.
“I should like to call it intellectual,” the Dean said kindly, “she is keenly impressionable and self-reliant. I think I may be able to interest her, at least in a simplified course of study. I have always believed that boys were more able to accept routine discipline in education than girls, but we shall see.”
Della’s eyes, if he could only have seen them, held a twinkle of mirth, and her smile was a little more pronounced than usual.
“I think,” she said, softly, “that she is a very lovable, attractive girl. I am quite relieved, Barton, not to have a boy in the house.”
Kit woke up the following morning with the sunlight calling to her. It was early, but back on the farm she usually got up about six. There did not seem to be anyone stirring yet, so she dressed quietly, and found her way downstairs. The Dean kept a cook and gardener. Kit heard Carrie, the cook, singing in the dining room and went out at once to make friends with her.
“Is it very far down the bluff to the shore, Carrie?” she asked, eagerly. “I’m dying to climb down there, if I have time before breakfast.”
“Sure, Miss, it’s as easy as rolling off a log. You take the roundabout way through the garden, and the little path behind the tool shed, and you just follow it until you can’t go any farther, and there’s the bluff. I haven’t been down myself, but Dan says there’s a little path you take to the shore if you don’t mind scrambling a bit.”
Kit waved goodbye to her and went in search of the path. She found Dan, the gardener, raking up leaves in the garden. He was a plump, rosy-cheeked old Irishman, his face wrinkled like a winter apple, and he lifted his cap at her approach with a smile of frank curiosity and approval.
A half-grown black retriever came bounding to meet her, his nose and forepaws tipped with white.